Priorities for 2025
Where I'll be focusing MY attention
As we do every year, the Manatee County Commissioners met on Tuesday, January 7 to hold a strategic meeting. At these annual meetings, we all discuss our priorities for the coming year and beyond. As I posted recently, I kicked this meeting off with a State of the Chair where I reviewed changes to the agenda and public involvement. These improvements were a top priority of mine as I promised to each of you last year. A summary of those changes can be found in the last Substack.
I then moved into my Top Five Priorities for this year. These were not in any order of importance, rather they went from broader initiatives down to personal initiatives. Below is a summary of those priorities.
The Comprehensive Plan update has been ongoing for two years and counting. It’s long past the time we get this done and, if we cannot do so quickly, we need to start making select positive changes in the interim. This board needs to clearly state that we will NOT be moving the Future Development Area Boundary (FDAB). We need to rescind Policy 2.1.2.8, which I have motioned for three times unsuccessfully. We also need to modify our incentives and density bonuses to encourage development where it should go, not where it is presently going.
We also need to revisit our over-regulated minimum lot sizes and minimum parking ratios. If we care about more “affordable” housing, or even just less housing further sprawling outward, there is no reason we should have minimum lot sizes that only encourage large home development. If we allow the building of smaller homes on smaller lots, we’d facilitate the creation of substantially more affordable homes than we get with our current practices. And those homes would be spread throughout the county, rather than in large 100+ unit complexes, thus minimizing impacts to roadways, schools and communities.
I’ve advocated for full impact fees for years. Our budget and our infrastructure needs simply do not match our revenue from the developers today. I’m happy to see this current BOCC moving forward with a plan to enact full fees in line with a new study in 2025. We now need to move forward with a similar plan for Facility Investment Fees, which are essentially impact fees for utilities. We need to ensure we have adequate water and sewer capacity in the future before we need to turn to more expensive options for our residents.
As these new revenue streams come online, this board needs to have serious discussions about priorities and community needs. Simply creating ever-growing lists of roadways in need of improvement is lazy and unproductive. A more thoughtful plan for intersections, turn lanes, and alternative transportation methods is needed. Focusing on previously-promised parks and other quality of life amenities is critical to honoring our past and future promises to residents.
After three major storms this year, our county stormwater deficiencies have become even more clear than they already were. We need to make this a top priority as these storms aren’t going to get any less frequent. We need to update all flood and watershed maps to make more informed decisions about development and growth. We need to secure land for reservoirs. We need to get ahead of the next storm to avoid costly and life-changing flooding in our county.
A simple, although not inexpensive, fix is to actually maintain all the canals, ditches, culverts, etc currently in our county. I don’t care who’s “responsibility” it is. Inadequate maintenance and cleaning affects the entire area. I’ve previously pushed for a maintenance plan that will cycle through all needed cleaning on a continuous multi-year schedule. We need to determine how much this will cost and then find the funding to implement this immediately. After Tuesday’s meeting, staff notified me that they are putting together a full inventory list to start this review for board discussion.
As for my two personal priorities:
The board has kicked the can down the road for too long on getting Animal Welfare fixed and providing the quality of care our community should expect. We promised an expedited expansion of Bishop and a closure of Palmetto way too long ago. On Tuesday, I stated that I will personally consider our efforts a failure if Palmetto is still operational at the end of 2025. I will be pushing to ensure this project is finally completed and we can then start looking ahead rather than stressing over continued delays. We have a lot of positive momentum with MCAW but this shelter situation will continue casting a dark cloud over all the good efforts until it’s behind us.
Additionally, I will once again - and will with every new board - push to end the retail pet sale practice in Manatee County. I have been, and will continue to, advocate for a statewide ban at the Tallahassee level but the best way to force the hand of the state is to show strength within local municipalities.
Finally, I want to see a shovel in the ground for our first county-led segment of the trail system I’ve been advocating for since January 2021. We have received support at both the state and the federal level, as well as support from land owners in the trail’s path. The desire and the funding is there. We just need to make this happen. With the increase in e-bike usage, these trails, if designed and built properly for the future, are now more than just recreational amenities, they are multi-modal options for commuters and students alike. We can leverage this trail system to alleviate congestion on our roadways and to provide a better quality of life for residents of all ages.
To see the presentation of my personal priorities, the video is below.
My fellow commissioners also stated their priorities later in the meeting on Tuesday. These priorities were broad, thoughtful and exciting. They included vacation rentals, agricultural protection, community gardens, indigent healthcare, veteran support and many others.
A consensus was found on many important items. These included a renewed focus on development practices and impact fees; a need to fix our infrastructure and utility systems; and disaster management and flooding mitigation.
A full video of the rest of the BOCC priorities starts below. (Note that video issues cut off the beginning of Commissioner Felt’s District 1 discussion.)
I believe we’re on our way to a strong, and productive, 2025! We have a board who is ready and willing to work WITH each other and not AGAINST each other. The collective priorities reflect a focus on respecting the wishes and the needs of the public and we will work diligently for each of you to move these forward in the coming year.
PS: I handed out copies of a book to each commissioner Tuesday. If you would like to learn more about Strong Towns, you can find their website below.
I'm so optimistic about the future of Manatee County and am thrilled with the kick off of 2025 with our BOCC. Keep doing great things and reach out if I can help.
As a regular viewer of meetings since 2016, this was hands down one of the most productive meetings I have ever watched. We appreciate your objectives and clear vision for the future of our county. We feel that staff often works against and has drug their feet on citizens and commissioners wishes and expectations. It is the little things that make great improvements to our quality of life. Clearly if we can’t address the small things, how can we expect to do the big things well. Not only do we agree with your priorities we appreciate that there will be changes made so that staff will begin to follow the directives of the Board in a timely manner. We hope that you left a copy of Strong Towns at the library for citizens to borrow!